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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Provezza’s Triple Threat - Day 1 - 52 Super Series - Porto Cervo

Provezza finished last month’s Scarlino Cup regatta under a cloud. On the last run of the last race they slid down the leaderboard from a respectable fourth to a disappointing eighth. Ergin Imre’s team bounced right back today opening the Audi Settimana delle Bocche regatta with a nice pair of solid third places to lead the regatta, the second of the 2016 52 Super Series season.

“The only way to approach this today was to say Scarlino never happened. We de-briefed it to death. And we went out today with a plan and we executed and the plan was about right,” said Provezza's tactician Tony Rey.

After two good races where Porto Cervo delivered a consistent 9-11 knots of NNW’ly breeze and warm sunshine, Provezza leads Rán Racing by two points. Niklas Zennström’s crew finished second behind Bronenosec in the first race and sixth in the second race that was won by Quantum Racing.

Monday’s practice race had to be cancelled because the Mistral wind was blowing too strongly, which did nothing to help owners Doug DeVos and Peter Harrison. DeVos was back on the helm of Quantum Racing for the first time since January in Key West while newcomer Harrison was steering his first ever races in the 52 Super Series with Sorcha, on the well optimised and prepared four year old, former Synergy.

Their fortunes contrasted only slightly. Sorcha started Race 1 well, tactician Cameron Dunn taking them to the favoured right side of the course. Quantum Racing were not quite so good, slightly slowed off the start line, they finished ninth. But Sorcha had slotted smartly into the tight first windward mark line up, tacking under the bow of Rán Racing to round third and finish in a very respectable fourth.

It was Vladimir Liubomirov’s Bronenosec which won the first race. They led a group of four to the right side, into a better lifted pressure, to round the first mark with a small lead with Provezza in second. Rán Racing passed Sorcha and Provezza on successive legs, finishing second.

After debriefing Race 1 swiftly with tactician Terry Hutchinson, strategist Ed Baird and navigator Ian Moore; DeVos nailed the second start better and Quantum Racing were able to hold a good lane out to the left. They lead at the windward mark and were never really challenged, Harm Müller Spree’s Platoon taking second.

Bronenosec sadly suffered one of the those “Penthouse to Outhouse” kind of days. From winning the first race they dropped their kite over the back of the boat and spent many minutes trying to recover it, resulting in an 11th place.

“Well it was a tale of two races. The first race was hard to get back into. The second we lead wire to wire. What a great day with awesome competition. It was just great to be out there on the water,” said Doug DeVos, owner-driver, Quantum Racing